I do not understand your use of the term ‘fundamentalist’. Would you care to explain?
Bringer says that “Second Life is like anything else”, which indicates to me that he entirely understands that it can be like many other things, unless you seriously want to pursue the case that he is saying that EVERYTHING is either entertaining or addictive. Childbirth? Dinner? Breathing?

But to simplify the issue, I would sum him up as saying that you either use SL as leisure time, or you attempt to ‘live’ there. Can you really take issue with that?

A little disapointed by this comment. Why do we have to be so fundamentalist about things like SL? It can be many other things in between entertainment and addiction. It is up to the individual to manage their contribution and to make sure (if it is important to them) that they complete more than one painting in RL to be an artist. Spaces like SL can be about the Other rather than the All Consuming. I hope Wayfinder can find his way to navigate the two rather than leave so much good work behind.

Sorry folks for the strong reply, but I’ve had enough of lying trolls to last a lifetime.

OK, you call me fanatical and a liar again. As always, you present no facts, no information, just another Rodney rant. The reason of course is plain: you have no facts… you have no true information. All you can do is call names and label because your decisions were not based on factual evidence– they were based on Rodney attitude.

I’m not going to continue to wage a snit war with you, but I will say this: you seriously need to get away from SL and back to real life. I’m sure that if this were real life, you would not have the courage to call me a liar to my face. Because in real life, you can’t hide behind a keyboard and you have to face the consequences of your actions.

The first question that comes to mind is why in the world would I fabricate a story, remove an officer from our group and lose 3 sims in the process? Did you ever stop to ask yourself that question? What was to be gained by me? Didn’t you ever even stop to question WHY these things happened? Or did you just swallow the propaganda?

You’ve made accusations here without a shred of information to back up your claims. You call names– and pretty much leave it at that, as if your word should be enough to convince anyone. But now let’s discuss what really happened.

When you joined Elf Clan, I befriended you in every way possible You wanted to join the Guard. I trained you personally, spending hours helping you practice at our skill sessions. When you opened your own land, I provided you with equipment so that you could practice there– something I made available to no one else. In every way I worked to make you feel welcome in this group.

You were granted the respected position of Elf Clan Guard, sworn by oath to protect the group. But the first chance that you had to demonstrate that oath and your loyalty to this group, you not only betrayed me, but Elf Clan as well. You joined a group that appropriated our lands, destroyed our history and engaged in griefer tactics (I don’t say you were involved in that griefing… but you undeniably failed to protect Elf Clan from such). You were called on to keep your oath as Guard; you failed in that task.

An Oath Rodney, is not to be cast aside at first whim. You at least had the obligation to examine these matters thoroughly before making such a decision. You did not. You betrayed Elf Clan the first opportunity you got; your oath meant nothing.

You swallowed the propaganda of Fredrich hook line and sinker, apparently never even considering the possibility that as Forcythia’s business partner, he might be up to his neck in the matter himself. You accuse me of lack of honor. Where was your honor in these matters? Why did you not challenge his statements rather than blindly believing them? That is not Guard; that isn’t even Elf Clan. Our trust in you proved misplaced.

As far as your accusation of “ego”… sorry, in my experience it is usually he who cries such the loudest who is the most guilty. It’s easy to call names Rodney. Deeds speak the truth.

I imagine no leader is totally free of ego; in moderation it is part of what causes people to strive, to achieve. I was Founder of Elf Clan and the one who assigned Forcythia her office in the first place. She did not found this group and for the first several weeks of operation– she didn’t even hold a position. She was a member, like everyone else. Since I assigned her office and she abused that office, it was my obligation to protect the group from such activities. There was certainly no ego involved in the painful decision to remove her from that position, nor in dealing with the problems that followed.

When you were presented with a lengthy document detailing the facts of what had happened, you ignored the entire document and the sworn testimony of five of Elf Clan’s most respectable members. Why? Apparently because by that time, you didn’t want to acknowledge any evidence that you’d made some bad decisions, and that the actions you’d taken and the accusations you’d publicly made were in error. You did not have the courage to admit you might have been mistaken. It is unfortunate that a handful of other Guard exhibited your same attitude. It is unfortunate that the same characteristics that makes some wish to be Guard also makes them succeptible to mob mentality.

Fortunately, that was not the case with all of the Guard. Those who left were replaced– and by those who proved themselves far more honorable. I will cite the case of one Guard, a wonderful Dragon Inuchan, who took his position so honorably and seriously that he would sit for hours in front of the Castle, greeting people and watching over the land. That is what Elf Clan was about– not self-serving politics. That should have been you there Rodney. You chose against that honor.

I’m sorry you took the steps you chose. I’m sorry you allowed yourself to be swayed by the lies and propaganda that were circulated after these matters. But I will say this: no matter what went on behind the scenes, Forcythyia’s and Fredrick’s public activities should have been enough to convince any thinking individual that something just wasn’t right. Forcythia single-handedly started a very public civil war, banned the Founder of the group from “her” lands, started her own group on lands financed through Elf Clan funding. They contradicted their own statements in public meetings. They destroyed Elf Clan’s original sim. Contrary to your statement, Forcythia alone was the one who broke up Elf Clan. I didn’t start a public civil war or divide the sims; those were her decisions and activities. That you don’t see this, even to this day, is just sad.

Despite all that, Elf Clan continued to thrive. Up until the day the decision was made to cease support of Second Life, Elf Clan became stronger than it ever was before. At the time of our shutting down, we had 659 members… more than our entire history. The majority of members saw right through this nonsense and realized that despite the facade, there was rottenness behind Forcythia’s actions. THEY stuck with Elf Clan. They stuck to their oath of honor, loyalty, respect and integrity. And that is why Elf Clan, although down to one sim, continued to thrive. The heart of the group had always been not in land ownership– but in those four basic characteristics of our Charter. That’s what made Elf Clan so different, so popular, and what attracted so many people to the group.

I’m sorry you made the decisions you did. I’m sorry you were sucked in by all the nonsense. We were friends (or so I’d thought). That stopped. But that was your decision. You are an adult and responsible for your own actions. You claim you muted me because I was trying to sway you to my side. All I did was present evidence to help you make your own decision. As I recall, you muted me because after all the evidence was presented, you still copped an insulting and arrogant attitude (the same attitude shown in your message above) and I told you plainly that you had taken a course of dishonor and had broken your oath not just to me, but to Elf Clan itself. That was something you did not want to face. Unable to argue, you muted me. Pretty common response.

Those are the facts, Rodney.

I never tried to force information on anyone; just the contrary– I was at first very reluctant to release private information pertaining to group management. So you certainly did not mute me because I was harassing you and trying to get you to join my “side”. Get real. After your publicly displayed attitude, I frankly didn’t want you in the group. You were not Elf Clan.

Those are the facts. The only lies here are those you continue to tell yourself. We all make mistakes in our lives. When we do, we have two choices: we either accept that and strive to not make the same error again– or we blame others for our actions. Sorry you chose the course you did. You lost my friendship, your position in the group, your welcome in Elf Clan lands. Your decision. The problem was your own– no one else’s and certainly not mine. And no matter how hard you try to convince yourself and others otherwise– those facts won’t change.

The point of this article isn’t the internal issues of Elf Clan– but rather Linden Lab’s response to those issues and the result to Second Life. The Elf Clan Counsel unanimously decided to close down this group and cease support of this platform. The reason was not because of Forcythia or anyone else of her group– it was because of Linden Lab policies and company failure to support one of their largest, most active, and most successful groups.

For the record, Linden Lab was given every opportunity to correct these matters… and at little or no cost to themselves. It was understandable that they might not wish to take “sides” in these issues. But it was their policies that allowed a renegade officer to appropriate group-funded lands. So I simply asked them to replace the three sims that were taken from us– something that would have cost them very little to do (the cost of a single server?). It would have pulled in for Linden Lab about $9,360 US in sim fees over the next year. They declined to answer. All politics aside, that is just plain ignorant business. And it told me that they don’t care one bit about Elf Clan or other large groups on the board. As Uri pointed out– it seems their focus is heading toward the corporate sector, where the big money is… and hang the “little” guy. Only thing was, Elf Clan wasn’t so little.

I tried very hard to get them in some way to assist Elf Clan in these matters. Their single, sole response to our group– after three months of waiting: “…there is nothing in the evidence that you presented to us that breaks our Terms of Service. Agreements regarding financial arrangements between residents is outside of our purview to moderate.” Or to put matters plainly, members can steal one another blind and Linden Lab absolves itself of all moderative responsibility. It’s their board, their power, their decision to do nothing in such instances.

Shortly thereafter I announced my decision to leave Second Life, and a month later, the Counsel unanimously decided to cease support of the platform. To continue to invest in such a company would have been a monumental waste of time and money. Considering the company policies, extensive lag and performance problems, repetitive super-bugs, copyright issues (isn’t Copybot and the lack of security against such wonderful?), ownership issues, grid downtimes etc etc, continuing to invest thousands of dollars in such a platform would have been unwise.

I loved Second Life– obvious in that I spent two years in heavy support of the system. But that love wasn’t returned– and never will be. Corporations as a rule neither respect nor love their customers– for them it’s all bottom line and stockholder accountability. But a company that fails to support its customers– will lose its customers. In the end run, it will be seen which philosophy wins out.

The shame is– this isn’t an isolated case. Elf Clan wasn’t the first group to become frustrated with Linden Lab and Second Life- nor will it likely be the last.
http://elfclan.net

But Rodney, as for you, personally, I have one thing to say, ex-Guard: stop blaming others for your problems.